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Hurricane Irene: Evacuations begin on Ocracoke Island
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Hurricane Irene: Evacuations begin on Ocracoke Island
Tourists have begun evacuating from a tiny barrier island off North
Carolina as Hurricane Irene strengthened to a major Category 3 storm
over the Bahamas with the East Coast in its sights.
So far,
things are going smoothly, said Tommy Hutcherson, owner of the Ocracoke
Variety Store on Ocracoke Island. Cars lined up at gas pumps to top off
before leaving ahead of Irene, which had winds near 193 kph as of
Wednesday afternoon (local time). Irene is expected to get stronger over
warm ocean waters and could become a Category 4 storm with winds of at
least 211 kph by Thursday.
The evacuation was a test of whether
people in the crosshairs of the first major hurricane along the East
Coast in years would heed orders to get out of the way. As Irene churned
in the Caribbean, tourists scurried from hotels in the Bahamian capital
of Nassau to catch flights off the island before the airport's expected
afternoon closure. Officials as far north as Rhode Island and
Massachusetts in the US also were getting ready for Irene.
The
first ferry to leave Ocracoke Island in North Carolina arrived just
before 5:30am in nearby Hatteras with around a dozen cars on board.
The
16-mile-long barrier island is accessible only by boats that can carry
no more than 50 cars at a time. It is home to about 800 year-round
residents and a tourist population that swells into the thousands when
vacationers rent rooms and cottages. Tourists were told to evacuate
Wednesday. Island residents were told to get out on Thursday.
It
wasn't clear how many people on the first arriving ferry Wednesday
morning were tourists, but the first two cars to drive off had New York
and New Jersey plates.
Getting off the next ferry about an hour
later was a family that included newlywed Jennifer Zaharek, 23, of
Torrington, Conn. She and her husband, Andrew, were married Monday and
planned to spend their honeymoon on the island.
"We just got to spend one day on the beach and then we went to bed early to get up for the evacuation," she said.
State
workers questioned people who tried taking the ferry to the island and
turned a few cars around. In addition to the ferry line to Hatteras,
there were two other ferry lines that went to and from the island.
Federal
officials have warned Irene could cause flooding, power outages or
worse all along the East Coast as far north as Maine, even if it stays
offshore. The projected path has gradually shifted to the east, and
Irene could make landfall anywhere from South Carolina to Massachusetts
over the weekend.
As of 2:00pm EDT Wednesday, Irene was centred
about 402km southeast of Nassau in the Bahamas and was moving northwest
near 19 kph.
Speaking Wednesday on ABC's Good Morning America,
Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said
people as far north as New England should be ready for the storm. When
asked about concerns preparing the Northeast for a hurricane, which is
uncommon in that part of the country, Fugate cited Tuesday's earthquake
that rattled the East Coast.
"It's a reminder that we don't always get to pick the next disaster," Fugate said.
Ocracoke
is part of North Carolina's Outer Banks, a roughly 200-mile stretch of
fragile barrier islands off the state's coast. Pristine beaches and wild
mustangs attract thousands of tourists each year. Aside from Ocracoke,
the other islands are accessible by bridges to the mainland and ferries.
The limited access can make the evacuation particularly tense.
Officials in counties covering the rest of the Outer Banks were to
decide later Wednesday or Thursday whether to evacuate.
All the
barrier islands have the geographic weakness of jutting out into the
Atlantic like the side-view mirror of a car, a location that's
frequently been in the path of destructive storms over the decades. In
1999, Hurricane Floyd made landfall as a Category 2 storm and caused a
storm surge that wiped out scores of houses and other properties on the
Outer Banks.
Irene had already wrought destruction across the
Caribbean, giving a glimpse of what the storm might bring to the Eastern
Seaboard. In Puerto Rico, tens of thousands were without power, and
one woman died after trying to cross a swollen river in her car.
Thousands were evacuated because of flooding in the Dominican
Republic. In Cuba, the storm sent waves crashing over a seawall in
Baracoa, causing ankle-deep flooding in parts and damaging some
sidewalks.
Hurricane conditions were already present in the
southeastern Bahamas, forecasters said. The capital of Nassau buzzed
with preparations Wednesday, as the government and some resorts set up
emergency shelters. Many visitors scrambled to get off the island,
waiting in long lines to catch planes before the airport closed.
"I've
been through one hurricane and I don't want to see another," said Susan
Hooper of Paris, Illinois, who was cutting short a trip with her
husband, Marvin, to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary.
It's
been more than seven years since a major hurricane, considered a
Category 3 with winds of at least 179 kph, hit the East Coast. Hurricane
Jeanne came ashore on Florida's east coast in 2004.
People were
keeping an eye on the storm farther north. At the Breakers Resort Inn
in Virginia Beach, Va., manager Jimmy Capps said some customers have
cancelled, but he's urging most to wait until Thursday, when the storm's
path will be more certain than it is now. He said the 56-room inn is
still about 80 percent booked for the weekend.
In Massachusetts,
country music star Kenny Chesney bumped a concert ahead two days to
miss Irene, and state officials were making sure communications systems
were working and sandbags were stocked. In Rhode Island, officials
stockpiled sandbags and cleared storm drains to prepare for possible
flooding.
Tourist enclaves in Georgia and South Carolina,
though, were not expecting as much of a hit. Managers at Georgia's
Cumberland and Sapelo islands said they planned to remain open as Irene
approaches. In South Carolina, Gov. Nikki Haley said she didn't
anticipate evacuations.
"What we can say is tourists can
comfortably stay on the coast. If something changes, we'll have another
news conference," she said.
North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue
urged coastal residents to be prepared and fill up their gas tanks,
collect their prescription drugs and have cash in case the region is
without power or other basics. Hurricane kits also should include water,
canned food and other supplies.
Still, Perdue tried not to
discourage vacationers from visiting North Carolina's coast, saying at
this point the state's southern beaches would avoid the brunt of the
storm and predicted Irene would pass the state by Sunday morning -
leaving intact the week leading up to the Labour Day holiday.
Perdue
defended comments she made Tuesday asking the media not to scare away
tourists and urging vacationers to keep visiting North Carolina.
"You
will never endanger your tourists, but you also don't want to
overinflate the sense of urgency about the storm. And so let's just hang
on," she said
Cheryl Tuverson of Drexel Hill, Pa., was staying
on Hatteras Island with a large group, including her two children, and
had no plans to hang on. She recalled staying through a storm during a
previous visit to the area and said she wouldn't do it again.
"This time, we'll leave," she said. "We're supposed to leave Saturday, but we'll leave Friday."
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Hurricane-Irene-Evacuations-begin-on-Ocracoke-Island/tabid/417/articleID/223424/Default.aspx#ixzz1VylApuGv
Carolina as Hurricane Irene strengthened to a major Category 3 storm
over the Bahamas with the East Coast in its sights.
So far,
things are going smoothly, said Tommy Hutcherson, owner of the Ocracoke
Variety Store on Ocracoke Island. Cars lined up at gas pumps to top off
before leaving ahead of Irene, which had winds near 193 kph as of
Wednesday afternoon (local time). Irene is expected to get stronger over
warm ocean waters and could become a Category 4 storm with winds of at
least 211 kph by Thursday.
The evacuation was a test of whether
people in the crosshairs of the first major hurricane along the East
Coast in years would heed orders to get out of the way. As Irene churned
in the Caribbean, tourists scurried from hotels in the Bahamian capital
of Nassau to catch flights off the island before the airport's expected
afternoon closure. Officials as far north as Rhode Island and
Massachusetts in the US also were getting ready for Irene.
The
first ferry to leave Ocracoke Island in North Carolina arrived just
before 5:30am in nearby Hatteras with around a dozen cars on board.
The
16-mile-long barrier island is accessible only by boats that can carry
no more than 50 cars at a time. It is home to about 800 year-round
residents and a tourist population that swells into the thousands when
vacationers rent rooms and cottages. Tourists were told to evacuate
Wednesday. Island residents were told to get out on Thursday.
It
wasn't clear how many people on the first arriving ferry Wednesday
morning were tourists, but the first two cars to drive off had New York
and New Jersey plates.
Getting off the next ferry about an hour
later was a family that included newlywed Jennifer Zaharek, 23, of
Torrington, Conn. She and her husband, Andrew, were married Monday and
planned to spend their honeymoon on the island.
"We just got to spend one day on the beach and then we went to bed early to get up for the evacuation," she said.
State
workers questioned people who tried taking the ferry to the island and
turned a few cars around. In addition to the ferry line to Hatteras,
there were two other ferry lines that went to and from the island.
Federal
officials have warned Irene could cause flooding, power outages or
worse all along the East Coast as far north as Maine, even if it stays
offshore. The projected path has gradually shifted to the east, and
Irene could make landfall anywhere from South Carolina to Massachusetts
over the weekend.
As of 2:00pm EDT Wednesday, Irene was centred
about 402km southeast of Nassau in the Bahamas and was moving northwest
near 19 kph.
Speaking Wednesday on ABC's Good Morning America,
Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said
people as far north as New England should be ready for the storm. When
asked about concerns preparing the Northeast for a hurricane, which is
uncommon in that part of the country, Fugate cited Tuesday's earthquake
that rattled the East Coast.
"It's a reminder that we don't always get to pick the next disaster," Fugate said.
Ocracoke
is part of North Carolina's Outer Banks, a roughly 200-mile stretch of
fragile barrier islands off the state's coast. Pristine beaches and wild
mustangs attract thousands of tourists each year. Aside from Ocracoke,
the other islands are accessible by bridges to the mainland and ferries.
The limited access can make the evacuation particularly tense.
Officials in counties covering the rest of the Outer Banks were to
decide later Wednesday or Thursday whether to evacuate.
All the
barrier islands have the geographic weakness of jutting out into the
Atlantic like the side-view mirror of a car, a location that's
frequently been in the path of destructive storms over the decades. In
1999, Hurricane Floyd made landfall as a Category 2 storm and caused a
storm surge that wiped out scores of houses and other properties on the
Outer Banks.
Irene had already wrought destruction across the
Caribbean, giving a glimpse of what the storm might bring to the Eastern
Seaboard. In Puerto Rico, tens of thousands were without power, and
one woman died after trying to cross a swollen river in her car.
Thousands were evacuated because of flooding in the Dominican
Republic. In Cuba, the storm sent waves crashing over a seawall in
Baracoa, causing ankle-deep flooding in parts and damaging some
sidewalks.
Hurricane conditions were already present in the
southeastern Bahamas, forecasters said. The capital of Nassau buzzed
with preparations Wednesday, as the government and some resorts set up
emergency shelters. Many visitors scrambled to get off the island,
waiting in long lines to catch planes before the airport closed.
"I've
been through one hurricane and I don't want to see another," said Susan
Hooper of Paris, Illinois, who was cutting short a trip with her
husband, Marvin, to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary.
It's
been more than seven years since a major hurricane, considered a
Category 3 with winds of at least 179 kph, hit the East Coast. Hurricane
Jeanne came ashore on Florida's east coast in 2004.
People were
keeping an eye on the storm farther north. At the Breakers Resort Inn
in Virginia Beach, Va., manager Jimmy Capps said some customers have
cancelled, but he's urging most to wait until Thursday, when the storm's
path will be more certain than it is now. He said the 56-room inn is
still about 80 percent booked for the weekend.
In Massachusetts,
country music star Kenny Chesney bumped a concert ahead two days to
miss Irene, and state officials were making sure communications systems
were working and sandbags were stocked. In Rhode Island, officials
stockpiled sandbags and cleared storm drains to prepare for possible
flooding.
Tourist enclaves in Georgia and South Carolina,
though, were not expecting as much of a hit. Managers at Georgia's
Cumberland and Sapelo islands said they planned to remain open as Irene
approaches. In South Carolina, Gov. Nikki Haley said she didn't
anticipate evacuations.
"What we can say is tourists can
comfortably stay on the coast. If something changes, we'll have another
news conference," she said.
North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue
urged coastal residents to be prepared and fill up their gas tanks,
collect their prescription drugs and have cash in case the region is
without power or other basics. Hurricane kits also should include water,
canned food and other supplies.
Still, Perdue tried not to
discourage vacationers from visiting North Carolina's coast, saying at
this point the state's southern beaches would avoid the brunt of the
storm and predicted Irene would pass the state by Sunday morning -
leaving intact the week leading up to the Labour Day holiday.
Perdue
defended comments she made Tuesday asking the media not to scare away
tourists and urging vacationers to keep visiting North Carolina.
"You
will never endanger your tourists, but you also don't want to
overinflate the sense of urgency about the storm. And so let's just hang
on," she said
Cheryl Tuverson of Drexel Hill, Pa., was staying
on Hatteras Island with a large group, including her two children, and
had no plans to hang on. She recalled staying through a storm during a
previous visit to the area and said she wouldn't do it again.
"This time, we'll leave," she said. "We're supposed to leave Saturday, but we'll leave Friday."
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Hurricane-Irene-Evacuations-begin-on-Ocracoke-Island/tabid/417/articleID/223424/Default.aspx#ixzz1VylApuGv
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